1 Kamal 166 B.E. (Baha'i Calendar)

Drumbeat in my head: Cocteau Twins, "Summerhead"

Our house sits on a small embankment which is three steps higher than the sidewalk. We've turned the embankment into a nice looking garden. Walk a few feet and go up four more more steps, and you're on our front porch.

Our porches—particularly our front one—are among the best features of our co-op house. It makes up for the fact that our house currently is short of common space.  But the porches are more valuable to us than just common space. It's a great place to take in the outdoors, relax, read or chat with housemates. And we've met many a neighbor while sitting on our front porch. It's open enough to the sidewalk that people will sometimes stop by and introduce themselves.

But we haven't spent much time on the front porch this summer. The reason—our street has been torn up since the beginning of April due to construction. Apparently they have been replacing very old sewer and water mains. So, in the middle of the city, we have been living on what has been essentially a dirt road.  Throughout the summer, we've been dealing with a lot of construction dust, and sweeping the porch has been a futile gesture. It also hasn't been a very attractive street to look out upon.  As such, we've ended up spending less time on the porch.

However, this is beginning to change. I came home from work yesterday and found blacktop where dirt and gravel once were. They're finishing putting on the blacktop today. We've had to keep our windows and doors closed because the smell of tar was starting to permeate the house, but it's starting to look better now.

We have a brand-new speed hump right in front of our house. That is nice, because we have a one-year old in the co-op who is starting to realize that she has LEGS and that she can use them to get around quite easily.

They've also done some nice landscaping down the street, adding a little island.

It's not very pleasant to be outside with the tar, but we realize that we are finally at the end of the road, so to speak, with the construction. It's looking attractive, and soon our porch will be a great place to hang out once again. We're talking about power-washing the porch and applying a nice stain to make it look nicer and make it easier to clean.

I'm really looking forward to the rest of the summer and the fall...